FIOS COLUMN APRIL 2018

Work has been undertaken this month by UOG and Ness Community Council to submit ideas and solutions to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar in relation to the Tourism Infrastructure Fund. The fund was launched by Scottish Government to help address some of the pressure and negative impacts that are the result of an increase in visitors to key sites. The Butt of Lewis is without a doubt a very key site and one which experiences a huge number of visitors. Various consultations over recent years have identified the site as being one which requires some development work to be undertaken to ensure it doesn’t suffer further from the influx of visitors to the site.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar intends to submit an Outer Hebrides wide application on behalf of the tourism sector and we are very hopeful the Butt of Lewis can be considered as part of this bid. UOG are keen to consider how we can work in partnership to address the negative impacts and ensure best value is achieved for any project undertaken. Thanks to Ness Community Council and also to the Western Isles Tour Guides Association who both submitted information to support the submission to the Comhairle.

Our outdoor sessions over the Spring break have proved as popular as ever, with over 20 children in attendance for one of the bushcraft sessions! The popularity of these events is amazing and of course some great weather really helped too! More sessions will run throughout the Summer and October holidays.

We are running a series of Health Walks as part of out “Sunnd” programme and would encourage anyone who is interested to get in touch. These are being run as a pilot and if the times or locations are not suiting people then we want to find out what we can do to improve things to make them suit. Anyone interested should get in touch with the office.

Finally, everyone at UOG would like to offer our congratulations to Scott and Mairi Graham on the birth of their son, Donnie who was born on 10th April. We are delighted he has arrived safely and we wish our colleague Mairi all the very best during this special time.

More information on our events/projects can be found in this issue of Fios or visit www.galsontrust.com, follow us on Facebook or call the office on 01851 850393 / email: office@uogltd.com